Gingrich’s Lunar Orbit

Newt Gingrich understands the basics: In an American election campaign, the media must be kept in suspense. Every day, it was Gingrich, though, who made a buzz. Regardless of what the truth is, the media has provided these ideas. Mostly large ones — “Big ideas,” Gingrich claims.

Newt is a man of big ideas. Ezra Klein has dissected a few, calling them “big, bad ideas.” Gingrich’s tax reform, which would allow Mitt Romney to pay 0 percent interest on his dividends, is already underway.

The site “Supervillain or Newt” has even created a game where one can train to distinguish true Gingrich-like ideas from copies. (For example: Is the nuclear cause concerning geological movements that would help the real estate sector by creating a larger coastline Newt’s idea or not?)

Gingrich’s most recent idea: settling on the moon. Newt had already proposed drilling. Yesterday, at Cape Canaveral, Newt promised that the U.S. would have a base on the moon before the end of his term (that is, his second). As we can see, Newt really thinks big. This has brought on a never-ending stream of “jokes”; the Washingtom Post proclaimed “Newt Promises the Moon.”

The word that is automatically associated with Newt is “fantasy,” but fantasy still does not apply to him.

Yet … one of his most eloquent statements during an interview with Esquire magazine is when he admits he is four years old at heart (and he reserves a soft spot for dinosaurs). “There is a large part of me that has always been four years old. I wake up in the morning and I know there is a cookie somewhere. I do not know where it is but I know it’s mine and that I must find it. My life is an amazing piece of cake.”

Below is an excerpt of the original interview, conducted by journalist John H. Richardson:

“There’s a large part of me that’s four years old,” he tells you. “I wake up in the morning and I know that somewhere there’s a cookie. I don’t know where it is but I know it’s mine and I have to go find it. That’s how I live my life. My life is amazingly filled with fun.” He says this in the same office, with the same assistant at his side and a digital recorder on the table. Last year, at 65, he converted to Catholicism. He credits this to Bisek, a willowy blond who sings in a church choir. “Callista and I kid that I’m four and she’s five and therefore she gets to be in charge, because the difference between four and five is a lot.”